president of the united states and bring that spirit of redemption back to the very same place where he had served so many years ago. or that few hours later, burmese president thein sein would say i want to do what you've been talking about, i want to move forward. "the ed show" is up next. good evening, americans, and welcome to "the ed show" from new york. america rejected paul ryan. apparently john boehner didn't get the memo. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> we've seen talk about a possible compromise that would leave rates the same, but cap the deductions for high income earners. is that something acceptable? >> no. >> democrats aren't budging. the service employees international union breaks news on my radio show.

>> how would you feel if the bush tax cuts expired all the way across the board and we started over with the obama tax cuts? how would that work for you? >> i think that would be acceptable. >> former labor secretary robert reich and congressman bill pascrell on the latest movement on the fight for the middle class. a judge orders mediation for hostess and its employees. but make no mistake, the vulture capitalists will get their cut. i'll talk twinkie with rolling stone's matt taibbi. plus john mccain. >> the chickens are now coming home the roost. the banks revolt against elizabeth warren, and workers are threatening strikes at walmart stores across america. >> we expect our associates to show up and to do their job. >> josh edleston has the latest on the workers very walmart. good to have you with us

tonight, folks. thanks for watching. democratic leaders are in this budget fight to win it for the middle class. president obama is wrapping up his southeast asia trip. in thailand he was overheard requesting help from a higher power to solve the standoff in washington. >> yes, we're working on this budget, and we're going to need a lot of prayer for that. >> the president is being lighthearted about it overseas, but in washington he is deadly serious about keeping the upper hand in negotiations. fellow democrats are defending the line in the sand. here is house democratic leader nancy pelosi when she was asked if the democrats would accept a deal extending tax cuts for the wealthy. >> we've seen talk about a possible compromise that would leave rates the same but cap deductions for high income earners. that something that is acceptable? >>. no. >> not at all? no way. >> the president made it very clear in his campaign that there is not enough -- there are not enough -- what you just described is a formula and a blueprint for hampering our future. >> that is refreshing to hear,

isn't it? you can't get more straight forward than that. democrats from both chambers are not budging. senator dick durbin wouldn't entertain the idea of the gop of a tax hike on millionaires only. >> $250,000 of income for a family is a reasonable number. to go up to a million, i'm not sure what we're proving with that. there has to be revenue on the table. and those 2% or 1% of the highest wage earners in america who are doing well should pay a little bit more. >> big labor is also on board. i spoke with mary kay henry of the service employees union on my radio show today. she says her members will be okay with letting all tax cuts expire. >> i think that would be acceptable. i do think that the house republicans have a choice right now to bring economic peace of mind to the american middle class by making the middle class cuts permanent. >> so letting all the tax cuts

expire would put us right back to pretty much square one, and president obama and his team could come up with a framework that may be better for the middle class. >> right. >> you're okay with that? >> absolutely. >> so this is where we're at. the president and congressional democrats will not do a deal without tax hikes for the top 2%. democrats will not consider a millionaires only tax. big labor says it's okay if all tax cuts expire because republicans will lose all of their leverage. the republicans are up a bad creek without a paddle. conservative governors like bobby jindal and scott walker have emerged, trying to moderate their party's agenda. but jindal and walker both had no answers on what they would do for the middle class. >> president obama says look, let's extend the bush tax cuts, the lower tax rates for 98% of all taxpayers, including the middle class right now. i'll sign it today. he took out his pen at the news

conference. and the republicans are saying no, no, no, we can't do that until we decide what we're going to do with the top 2% of taxpayers. why wouldn't a middle class voter look at that and say these guys, the gop, are all about protecting the rich? >> crystal clear. pretty direct question, wouldn't you think? here is jindal's answer. >> we need to make it very clear we're not the party protecting the rich. they can protect themselves. we're the party that wants growth, pro-growth policies. >> no, no, no, it's the answer. i was at a football game last night, and i didn't see a punt any better than that one which you just saw from governor bobby jindal of louisiana. well, now let's try scott walker. is he any better? here it is. >> when the president is holding up his sign i'll sign extending tax cuts, lower taxes which is supposedly a republican mantra for 98% of americans, and the republicans are saying not so fast, bill kristol was on this show last week and he said, you know, it wouldn't kill the

republicans to raise taxes on millionaires a little bit. is he wrong? >> another tough question from fox on taxes. your move, governor walker. >> we need to get the economy going. we need to get people back to work. and that disproportionately affects the middle class right now. the fact that they're talking about anything that might make it worse on the economy i think is a bad sign about what is happening in washington. >> scott walker looks like he is running for 2012 dodge ball champion of the year. folks, just let all the tax cuts go away if they don't want to do a deal, because then they're going to come back and say no to another deal, and it's only going to get politically worse for them. republicans have no answers because they just basically have a loser's hand, any way you look at it. now i'm tired of the bush tax cuts. i would like to see the obama tax cuts. house speaker john boehner? he doesn't seem to get it very good. look at who he has put in charge of their negotiations. "the new york times" reports speaker boehner has tapped paul ryan to help strike a deal on tax increases and spending cuts

by the end of the year, and to bring alongfellow republicans. i don't think he is very good at that. this is the same paul ryan, you know, from that losing presidential ticket of just a few weeks ago, the same congressional leader who wants to kill medicare and medicaid. the same guy who wants to keep taxes low for the wealthiest americans, and let's just cut the hell out of education. voters rejected this guy. voters rejected paul ryan's plan two weeks ago. but boehner put paul ryan in charge of the negotiations. in fact, according to the times, mr. ryan could conceivably scuttle any deal if he loudly opposes the solution that is the speaker of the house and also top republican leaders would embrace. what is he? the ruler of the house now? putting ryan, paul ryan out front and center in these budget negotiations tells you everything you need to know about how far the republicans are going to go to doing a deal. republicans took a beating in this election. they haven't heard what the

american people are telling them, apparently. this is the biggest story in the country right now there is no question about it. and all of the rest of the side stuff is all chatter in my opinion. this is where the country needs to be focused for the middle class. the outcome of this budget fight will tell you the future of america's middle class. and that's what this election was about. democrats i think are off to a very good start. just hang your hat on what nancy pelosi said. no. we are going to move the rates higher on the wealthiest americans. and there is not going to be any deal on deductions and phony accounting that is going to get us to some number that is never going to exist. again, let me give you the straight talk. somebody has to pay the bar tab. the democrats are willing to write the check, but the republicans, they want to get out scot-free. ain't going to happen. the democrats need to hold the line here and keep telling yourself liberals, we won this election, and this was an

exhaustive top pick throughout the entire conversation between president obama and mitt romney. we have the facts and the people on our side. get your cell phones out. i want to know what you think. tonight's question, who is paul ryan, who is paul ryan going to fight for? text a for the rich, text b for the middle class. you can always good the our blog at ed.msnbc.com. we'll bring you the results later on in the show. let's bring in congressman pascrell and robert reich, as the author of beyond outraged. gentlemen, great to have you with us tonight. >> how are you? >> congressman, let's start with you first. what do you expect with paul ryan at the helm of these negotiations? >> well, it doesn't send -- i'm not frightened about that situation. in fact, one of the things that paul does bring to the table, and i think it's necessary here is urgency. this is an urgent situation we need to address. if we kicked this can down the street, and i would contend that

if you do away with all of the bush tax cuts, and supposedly start anew in january, february, i don't think that helps us down the path. i think we could strike a deal to get 218 votes. we need about 30 to 40 votes on the republican side and the house of representatives. this is a time when we got to step up to the plate. >> what do you got to give up to get that, though this. >> well, we can have tax cuts. not only tax cuts, but we're going to have also the middle class tax cuts, there needs to be cuts in the budget. we got to start that process that was part of the president's deal. it's a balanced approach. i think it's the correct approach. what the numbers are we can debate. but what the philosophy is and the specifics are is critical to get a resolution. >> i don't disagree with that. but i disagree with paul ryan being an honest broker and demanding that there is going to be some major changes in medicare and medicaid. he is going to go after the poor, congressman.

>> none of russ going to accept cuts in medicaid benefits. none of us are going to accept a different model for social security on the democratic side. what we need to work out is how much are we going to cut in taxes. what are we going to allow? i mean the republicans are holding the middle class hostage here. well could have done this five months ago. and that is as the senate did. and that's provide the tax cuts, let them continue for the middle class. we have other taxes we got to debate here. we have to talk about the taxes in terms of what people are paying in payroll taxes. >> i guess i kind of thought that the hostages saw the gates open on november 6th. robert reich, what do you make of this? >> the interesting thing here, ed is that the democrats are holding tough. and the republicans seem not to have remembered who won the election on november 6th. they by putting paul ryan in there as the chief negotiator are putting somebody in who really did say all during the election we are going to cut medicare. we're going to cut social

security. we're going to cut programs for the poor. and we with are going to cut taxes on the rich. well, that was repudiated by the electorate, very, very leclearl. right now democrats have a chance, a very, very important historic chance to illustrate for the public exactly whose side the republicans are on. and the republicans are clearly on the side of the rich and not on the side of the middle class. there will be i think a day of reckoning, and that day of reckoning is going to be in january. if with go over the so-called fiscal cliff, which is actually more of a hill than a fiscal cliff, what that means essentially is that all tax rates go back to the clinton tax rates. the clinton tax rates are not that horrible. i was very happy to be and very proud to be a member of the clinton administration, and we had a very good economy as i recall. >> congressman, are you okay with those rates? >> let me tell you this, ed. i don't accept, and i usually agree with the professor.

i don't accept that we should all just wait until the new administration comes in, a new congress is sworn in. i don't think that puts us in a better place at all. we could raise a lot of money and lose a lot of money at the same time if we let all the tax cuts expire. there is no guarantees that the middle class tax cut will be passed when we get to january, february. you're going to have just a few less republicans rather in the house of representatives. i don't agree with that. i think we should make an effort. let me tell you something, ed. i think we should look at the approximately of the president when he was a senator, senator obama and senator mccain, when they made that decision in september, both of them in the heat of a presidential election in 2008. >> yeah. >> to put differences aside and support us -- you know, there's got to be some common good here. we have to resolve the problem. >> i don't disagree with that. i totally agree with you there's got to be. but i don't trust the republicans that they are going

to put medicare and medicaid off to the side. >> well, we're not. we're not going to accept that, and you know that. >> okay. mr. reich, you think that the democrats can hold the line on this? >> well, they have to hold the line. that's what the election was all about. do we want to sacrifice medicare and medicaid? the public said no. do we want to increase taxes on the wealthy and give everybody else an extension of the bush tax cut? the public said overwhelmingly yes. the democrats know that they got a mandate, at least on that from the public. and the republicans seem not to have heard what the public said. and if the public -- if the republicans are going to do what they've done for the past four years, which is essentially say no to everything, not compromise at all, then we are going to go over the so-called fiscal cliff or hill. we are going to go back to the clinton tax rates. the democrats are going to have a chance to negotiate new taxes that do raise taxes on the wealthy and make them retroactive to january 1st. and then the republicans will be

a minority party in the house beginning january 1st of 2014. >> great to have you with us tonight. >> great to be here, ed. >> thank you so much. we'll continue the discussion. and remember tonight's answer to the question at the bottom of the screen. share your thoughts on twitter@edshow. and on face book. we want to know what you think. coming up, the twinkie is making headlines, but the workers are getting ignored. i'll have the real story behind the billion dollar bankruptcy. we'll be right back. plus d with efficient absorption in one daily dose. citracal slow release.

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a judge orders mediation instead of allowing more than 18,000 jobs to vanish if the makers of twinkies go out of business. senator john mccain asked for an apology from u.n. ambassador susan rice. and congressman allen west has defeated, but he won't quit. share your thoughts with us on facebook and twitter. using the hash tag ed show. we're coming right back. it has. ♪ make just one someone happy

and when it's a toys for tots child, well, what could be more important? so this year, every hasbro toy donated to toys for tots will be powered by duracell. happy holidays. duracell with duralock. trusted everywhere. or that printing in color had to cost a fortune. nobody said an all-in-one had to be bulky. or that you had to print from your desk. at least, nobody said it to us. introducing the business smart inkjet all-in-one series from brother. easy to use. it's the ultimate combination of speed, small size, and low-cost printing. thanks for staying with us. hostess brands went to bankruptcy court today.

the ceo wants to shut down operations and fire more than 18,000 workers. some people in the media broke the news with a few laughs. >> it is a sad, sad day for america. >> a final twinkie. i'm just going to save mine for 12 years when it will still be good. >> share the wealth there. >> doug, thank you. it makes you want to go buy all of the twinkies in the grocery store. >> can we have a quick thoughts of twinkies in your life? >> all these rich media people, you know, it's easy to talk about twinkies in the good old days. the real story, i don't think it's funny. it's about 18,000 workers who just found out that they are going to get fired just before the holidays. i think they have families, don't you? many have worked at hostess for more than a decade. their bosses asked for 8% pay cut and a 17% cut in benefits. some workers would have to give back at least $2,000 a year. this is the second time in three

years hostess has asked its employees to cut their salaries and sacrifice benefits to keep the company going. now the union is getting blamed. >> the union preferred killing the company to accepting what they thought was a bad deal. >> the brand has value. someone will buy it, and they'll go and manufacture it in a right to work state where hostess does not have to operate under 372 collective bargaining agreements. >> well, mr. george will, why don't you go work for their wage and see how it feels. this is not about a greedy union. hostess has been going broke for a long, long time under poor management. hostess is facing its second bankruptcy. at the same time, the ceos of the company, let's see, gregory rayburn, well, he gave himself a raise. he's making $2.25 million a year. other top executives got hefty pay raises too. while the company suffers, what happens to the fat cats on the top? they get paid more.

as usual, the republicans are blaming the workers. hostess declared bankruptcy in 2004 with $450 million in debt. most companies pay off their debt in bankruptcy. not hostess. it only got deeper into debt. in 2008, hostess got concessions from the union, then laid off 20% of the workers. hostess stopped paying into the pension fund as well. now the company is $1 billion in debt and it's back to threatening employees and begging for bankruptcy. here's the most shocking part of it all. today hostess attorneys told the bankruptcy judge they want to fire 18,000 employees at the same time they want to pay out $1.75 million in incentives to 19 senior managers. that's because they did such a hell of a job. i guess those managers did such a fantastic job they should get bonuses while the company goes under. that's how they think. the judge was not pleased. he ordered them into private mediation with the employees. apparently hostess completely

skipped mediation before announcing it would close up shop. and fire the employees. tonight analysts predict that hostess will sell its twinkie brand name to a better company. in the end, breaking up the union just because they think that's really good business. one investor wrote, shedding the complications of the union -- and old plants makes hostess even more attractive. make no mistake, this hostess bankruptcy story is not just about twinkie jokes. it's about big bucks and union busting. it's about 18,000 workers who say they have give up some pay, work extra shifts and wish for better management. >> the ceos are taking all the money and they're splitting, they're gone. they want to get money and get out. but we're staying poor and they're getting richer. >> we took an 80% pay cut to keep the plant open to we were able to have a job and work. but as you see, that didn't help either.

>> they watched the management ride it into the ground. they watched the upper management take the concessions from the last go-around and just squaund they're money away. >> this company just wants to rip this union apart. they are not going to take it. >> the twinkie brand name will probably survive. 18,000 workers are out of luck. at least it appears that way right now. joining me now rolling stone contributor matt taibbi. what's your moral compass here when management at the top is expecting big bonuses, yet workers are supposed to go home with nothing? >> this follows a familiar narrative that we've seen a lot in the last 15 to 20 years in america. in this case a private equity firm comes in and takes over after a bankruptcy. they borrow a ton of money. which of course becomes the company's debt. so now you have a company that in its first bankruptcy was $450 million in debt. now it's $1 billion in debt

after it was taken over. so the company that took it over didn't wipe out its debt. it doubled its debt. but in the end, they are not blaming all that debt for the company's problems. they are blaming the workers and their pensions and benefits which remain static or have gone down throughout this entire time. it's part of this overall mythology that we have to blame the workers for wanting benefits and a living wage. >> could taxpayers wind up paying the unpaid pension fund? >> that's a possibility. one of the maneuvers that we have seen a lot from these financial companies in recent years, and this happened with companies like friendly ice cream and eddie bauer is that you have a bankruptcy, and what happens is that the pension gets peeled off and gets assumed by the pension benefit guarantee corporation, which is a federally ensured insurance company. and they would assume part or all of the pension obligation and then once that happens, once you have peeled off the pension,

then the asset becomes more attractive to new buyers and they take over the company. and people are left without pensions. >> these workers on fixed wages and fixed benefits, they are not in charge of sales, they are not in charge of product development. they're not in charge of innovation. they are the workers that make the product and do all the things. yet in so many of these cases, they end up getting the blame. it's all their fault. they are the reason why. this is the bain model of capitol capitalism, isn't it? >> absolutely. oons bain did a lot of deals like this. they peeled off the pension fund a couple times. there was a gas company, i believe, they were involved where they did the exact maneuver. but one thing that everybody agrees about with hostess and with these products like twinkies, everybody likes twinkies. there's nothing wrong with the product. obviously, they are suffering in popularity because of the health craze, but they're still a very healthy market for these

products, which means the workers are doing a good job. they are putting out a good product. it's that management has been incompetent and it's unfortunate that the narrative has shifted the blame to the workers. >> matt taibbi, thanks for joining us tonight. appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up, the latest installment in john mccain's quest to stay relevant. now he's demanding a television apology from u.n. ambassador susan rice. the nation's katrina van hubbell will weigh in. and later it's been two weeks since the election and alan west refuses to let democracy run its course. we'll bring the latest from florida. stay with us. [ male announcer ] the only thing better

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welcome back to "the ed show." thanks for watching. john mccain has been embarrassing himself on national television and it looks like he has no intention of stopping. mccain's role on the senate armed services committee has given him the opportunity to grandstand over the administration's response to the attack on benghazi. he's been lobbying to establish a special watergate-style select committee on intelligence on the matter. of course mccain undermined his own effort when he skipped the congressional briefing on benghazi to hold a news conference demanding answers on the subject. to make matters worse, he blew up at a reporter who dared to question him about his absence. mccain's idea of a watergate-style panel suggests the obama administration has been involved in some kind of a cover-up. but top intelligence officials tell nbc's andrea mitchell they kept their unclassified talking points for susan rice deliberately vague to avoid any

future legal proceedings. and some of mccain's own republican colleagues say there's no reason to create a special committee. so why is mccain doing this? as "the huffington post" pointed out, in january, senator mccain from arizona will lose his top ranking committee seat due to term limits. the only ranking spot available to him next session will be on the indians affairs committee. the creation of a special committee would give mccain the opportunity to stay relevant and create more problems for the president of the united states who defeated him in 2008 to prove just how disconnected from reality this man is, mccain is now demanding u.n. ambassador susan rice go on television and apologize for the way she characterized the benghazi attacks. >> maybe she could start out by publically coming back on this show and say, i was wrong. i gave the wrong information on your show some several weeks ago. that might be a beginning.

>> let's bring in katrina vanden heuvel. i just find that comment on the intelligence committee meetings on friday, that comment on sunday by john mccain outrageous. why is he attacking susan rice like that? >> i think if there are a number of reasons. i think he's trying to stay relevant as you said. i think this is a political hit job against the president. that's who they are aiming at. he and lindsey graham. i think they are doing the fox and the fox fuelled hysteria about the attacks in benghazi. but this reminds me of the republican flight from reality, the post truth politics mitt romney engaged in. remember, he would travel around the country saying president obama did an apology tour traveling the world. this guy, senator mccain, keeps talking about the danger of america's light footprint. if you want to deal with substance in this and not just these unverifiable calls mccain has made about weakness and light footprint, i think we need to look squarely at u.s. foreign

policy in the region. and what john mccain and lindsey graham are doing is a great disservice to america, because they're distracting us from confronting the extraordinary new challenges we face in north africa and in the middle east with this stuff, this partisan witch-hunt. and that flight from reality is at the heart of the current gop. >> you know, when president obama took office in 2009, the republicans were up against a president who was very popular coming off a historical election. nobody went after him except dick cheney. >> absolutely. >> dick cheney for the first four months, he was out there saying we're not on a war footing, that he doesn't understand security. >> absolutely. >> that we're less safe. and it seems like john mccain is now taking on this role. find anything you can and throw it at the president. >> throw it at the wall, throw it at the president. you know, the republicans have -- they don't have a lot of maneuvering room, to be honest, ed, because the president, though he has ended the war in iraq and is winding down the war in afghanistan, the president has for a lot of progressives

been -- you know, has backed away from national policy and these it's ones that mccain should like in many ways. if you want a select committee to investigate our national security, do it on a number of frameworks, but not susan rice and what she said on "meet the press." if you look at her interview, it was very cautious. she was given talking points by the cia. if anyone understands intelligence briefings and how intelligence works, it used to be john mccain until he decided this was going to become a political witch-hunt for him. don't get where he's heading except that a republican party wants to go after the president on this front. >> early days of the iraq war, it was mccain who used to complain about intelligence reports saying he would listen to them, but then pick up "the washington post" and see everything they had talked about the day before. he used to complain about this. so he can't have it both ways. >> the irony is also the hypocrisy.

think of the rank hypocrisy that you have lindsey graham and john mccain who are ardent supporters of condi rice and her misuse of intelligence, which when she talked about saddam hussein and his nuclear program, that campaign of misinformation constructed by dick cheney followed on by condi rice led us, lied us into a war. this we can't afford again. these republicans talking about the danger of a light footprint, no apology tour have no sense of a real security policy that this country needs. >> same playbook, different year is where we're at. katrina, great to have you with us. >> thanks so much. katrina vanden heuvel. there's a lot more coming up in the next hour of "the ed show." stay with us. >> 81 members of the democrat party. democrats in congress are up in arms over florida governor rick scott's plan to save his pal alan west. we'll go to florida next. then big banks are trying to

block elizabeth warren from doing her job. those details ahead. and workers are planning black friday strikes at walmart stores across america. the big box retailer is now punching back. the nation's josh eidelson here with the story.

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♪ i want candy welcome back to "the ed show." florida congressman allen west and patrick murphy has declared victory twice, and already attended the freshmen orientation meetings on capitol hill. nevertheless, two weeks after the election, former congressman allen west still refuses to concede after pinning his hopes to st. lucie county. now governor rick scott is taking heat for what democrats are calling improper interference in west's attempt to overturn the election results. florida secretary of state ken

denster, a scott appointee ordered a team of auditors from the state's election commission to oversee this county and the canvassers. it's a move that had florida's top democrats sounding the alarm. dnc chairman debbie wasserman schultz tweeted out today and put out a statement saying this, "after disfranchising florida voters by cutting down early voting days and creating extraordinary long lines at polls, governor scott is trying to overturn an election result he disagreed with. governor scott needs to remove himself from the process immediately." it was announced sunday after getting the state to recount the votes in problematic st. lucie county, west lost by even a wider margin than before. ironically, allen west, the man who channeled joe mccarthy by claiming 80 house democrats were communists just can't handle democracy. joining me is chairman of the broward county committee is mitch cesar.

he's also on the executive board of the dnc. mitch, good to have you with us tonight. >> thank you. >> crazy things continue to happen down in florida. look, this patrick murphy has won the election. what is the governor up to? >> well, you're right. actually, it seems patrick murphy has won it twice, literally. i find this very surprising because the governor was the king of voter suppression. not only in florida, but across the country. he led the way towards suppressing the vote. he's up for a tough reelection. in two years. and i'm a little bit surprised because what allen west is asking the governor to do is not solve a legal problem, he is asking him to solve a political problem. if republicans really are being truthful and have learned any lessons from the past election, it should be that the american public and certainly florida voters want a level playing field, and the governor has no business in this fight. >> does he have any legal recourse where he could cause problems here? tomorrow at noon, florida is

ready to certify the votes from the 18th congressional district. probably going to -- as i understand florida law, if west is going to challenge that after the election is certified, he would have to prove fraud. what about the governor? what legal avenue does the governor have? >> well, i don't think he has that much. as you know, ex-congressman west resorted to the court system. he got a recount, and as you said, he is further behind than he was. i think the governor's abilities here are very small. i would just be very shocked if he goes, as you said, he's going forward. but i don't think he can go too far. you know, this is governed. it was a three-county district. the problems within one county with one type of the voting. and i think his powers are limited. for a guy facing a tough reelection, i think he's crazy to get involved in this.

>> is this allen west's ego at this point? >> well, you know, i think that's exactly it. he reminds me of custer. here's a guy surrounded, doesn't know he is surrounded, finally figures out that he is. says to his troops, which is the republican party, looks like we're surrounded. and they turn to him and they go, what do you mean we? i think they are going to move away from him. the voters of the district show that extremism has now eventually done him in. >> all right, mitch cesar, great to have you with us tonight. thanks for your time. coming up, for the first time in 50 years, walmart workers are planning a major labor strike. it could impact the biggest shopping day of the year. we'll bring you the details. stay with us. we're right back. ♪ ♪ i want candy ♪ ♪ i want candy

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wendy and i went to this one over the weekend. we saw steven spielberg's "lincoln" which is based on doris goodwin's book "teams of rivals." i have to tell you, absolutely fascinating. it's a must-see. i think every high school government class in america should be encouraged to see this. jenna blake agreed with me. jenna writes, i almost took my 16-year-old to lincoln after hearing your review. both my kids 12 and 16 will see it next weekend. i did tweet over the weekend that i like it. michael wrote, funny how the party of lincoln wants to secede from the union. seriously, lincoln, it is a great movie. i was moved by it big-time. a lot of political minutia in it. i think you'll love it. elizabeth warren is on her way to washington as a senator. and wall street is not happy about it. we'll be right back. stay with us. [ male announcer ] this is joe woods' first day of work.

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senator-elect elizabeth warren of massachusetts is probably one of the most qualified people ever to potentially serve on the senate banking committee. so of course, wall street is trying to fight it. lobbyists are pressuring lawmakers to deny her a seat on the committee. according to mother jones magazine. the lobbying groups have been going nuts to keep warren off the committee according to a senate aid. the effort appears to be failing. there are two spots open on the banking committee and democrats control the senate. senate jack reid, the number two democrat on the committee, praised the senator from massachusetts. elizabeth warren. i can't think of anybody who has come to the senate with 30 years of detailed knowledge of the industry, he said. it's really an abundance of intellectual riches. elizabeth warren has been a crusader against the worst abuses of the financial industry. she was the one who conceived the consumer financial protection bureau. her career, standing up for the regular folks of the middle

class has just begun, and the banking committee position reportedly if she wants it is going to be hers. i hope she takes it. tonight if our survey, i asked, who is paul ryan going to fight for? 97% of you say the rich. 3% of you say the middle class. coming up, walmart employees are fed up with low wages and bad working conditions so they could be staging a major black friday strike. we'll bring you all the details next, stay with us. copd makes it hard to breathe,

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in the big finish tonight, for the first time walmart is facing a major labor strike and could impact black friday. walmart workers plan to strike at 1,000 stores around the country with the biggest protests taking place on black friday. smaller demonstrations have been happening since early october. workers are fighting for the basics. minimum pay of $13 an hour, fair scheduling, less expensive health benefits and safer working conditions in warehouses. walmart has been fighting efforts to unionize for years and now they are getting desperate. they filed a complaint against the union today. they claim the united food and commercial workers union is trying to force the store into

collective bargaining even though employees can't unionize. walmart tried to down play the protests earlier today. >> let's get one thing straight here. don't believe everything you read in the union press release. just because they say one thing doesn't mean it's going to materialize. we have seen some of these events before. it's usually a handful of associates at a handful of stores across the country. >> these workers have every right to fight for something that they consider to be fair. walmart made over $15 billion last year and paid its ceo $18 million. walmart has no problem hanging them out to dry. "the huffington post" obtained a walmart document showing low-level employee pay structure. they found if an employee starts at $8 an hour and performs flawlessly, they can expect to make $10.60 an hour after working there for six years. do the math for one year.

that employee makes $22,000 a year after working at walmart for six years? on top of all of this, the walton family, which owns walmart, was worth $89 billion in 2010. it's the same worth as the bottom 41% of american families. it's no surprise walmart workers are planning a black friday strike. the company defiantly has the money to provide its employees with a livable wage and health care. they can lead the way in america and help workers, but no, they hate union and don't want to pay workers. joining me is the nation magazine writer josh eidelson. great to have you with us. you have been on this story since this summer. what put you on the story? >> i started covering a group of workers in louisiana at a walmart supplier who went on strike. what they alleged were forced labor conditions. that means essentially slavery.

so you had eight workers in louisiana who went on strike, got walmart to suspend the supplier and laid the groundwork for the wave of strikes. >> so the retaliation took you to the next level of covering this. >> since this summer, i have been covering examples of workers. walmart workers have been speaking out over wages, working conditions, and the response that the workers have alleged has been management legally trying to discourage them, but illegally firing and threatening people. >> so people have lost their jobs because they have spoken out against the company's practices. correct? >> i have talked to numerous workers who have alleged that very credibly. >> when this protest started in october, did you think it was going to grow to what it is expected to be on friday? >> i thought it would be big. i don't think anyone knew how big it would get.

but in october we saw 160 retail workers on the strike. now we'll get to see how many co-workers they could bring along for black friday. >> what would a thousand stores walking out, what would that do? >> it has the potential to cut into the brand and sales when a huge chunk of business for the whole year happens. it can inspire as well. >> so the legal action that has now been put in front of the labor relations board, that was one of the things you wrote about. does it surprise you the company did that and what effect do you think it's going to have? >> it's just a matter of time. labor law does a lot to restrict unions and workers protest rights. in this case, though, walmart doesn't appear to have a very strong case. they would need to prove they are striking to force unionization saying they are striking over retaliation. walmart hasn't provided that evidence to the public.

i squd asked them for it. they gave me a letter that doesn't address it. >> what was your response to what you just saw, the vice president of communications saying they have seen these things before and they fizzle out. >> it's clear they haven't seen this before. up until last month, there have never been strikes at multiple walmart stores. >> do you think there will be a thousand? >> absolutely. everything that's been promised has been delivered. they have a dismissive message to the public, but they are sitting them to sit in the meetings and be lectured to why they shouldn't participate. >> they are about low prices and low wages. bottom line. >> you know, a report came out showing walmart if it paid employees half way decently, the way the economy could be stimulated is those workers would be lifted out of poverty and could go out and spend money. >> do you think they will ever be unionized? >> we're incredibly closer now than we were a couple months

ago. this company has closed entire departments and entire stores just because the workers looked like they would unionize. >> great to have you with us tonight. thank you very much. that's "the ed show." the "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening, rachel. >> good evening, thank you very much. appreciate it. thank you at home for staying with us for the next hour. the presidency of barack obama now at its halfway point has already been a presidency of historic firsts. tonight there are two more firsts to add to the list. this was president obama today in the nation of burma. that's him with the president of burma. here's president obama in cambodia alongside that nation's prime minister. the trips to burma and cambodia represent the first visits by a sitting u.s. president to either of those countries ever. and on this pre-thanksgiving trip, he squeezed in a trip to our long standing ally in the region, thailand. the president is traveling in a part of the world that's